Over on on RGP Joe’s Pinball posted a new tool called a PinPan

Tempted… I’m very tempted….

Here’s a nice little video of the arcades in the 80’s. Alas, I can’t remember any of it.

I’ve wanted a jukebox for a while now. Here’s some links to some that guys are building (as usual, some are pretty, most are ugly)

here
and
here

From:
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Who sells and ships wide body playfield glass??

I have use www.onedayglass.com twice, and been very satisfied with the
price and service. Their prices are reasonable, even with shipping.

Tim

Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: FS - Custom Logo Pinball Mats

I have had my treasured games in my gamesroom for many years. The floor is
hard and cold, but of course I keep the heat down a bit so I can save up for
more pins! Funny thing is many of my buddies did the exact same thing. We
had been scrounging up old sample carpet mats for years and putting them in
front of the games to make it easier to stand there and beat that elusive
high score! Problem is they look horrible, odd ends of discontinued colors
scattered all about my gamesroom. Warm, but hardly a fitting accessory for
my new LOTR!

I looked long and hard to find mats that matched my pinball themes…. they
just didn’t exist till now.

A bunch of my local pinhead buddies got together and decided that if we
couldn’t find these we’d make them. We pooled our games and skills and are
having mats made for all our pins that we now own. Some 27 different titles
in all. We have a few titles already and they are…. well they are
gorgeous! We only made a limited number of each, enough for each guy who had
the game to get one and a few extras in case of spoilage. We also had
minimum numbers that we had to make so some of the games like Haunted House
still have many extras. On the otherhand TZ, which we almost all have is in
short supply already. Other guys outside our group saw these and were so
impressed they bought mats for games they didn’t have!!As a result we have
added two titles to the end of the run at their request. Games that none of
the original group even have!!

The setup costs for these mats is very expensive so I doubt we’ll reprint
any of these once the left overs are gone as we’ll already have our own
games done. So in short if you want one for your game I’d grab it now. If
you wish to buy say 5 and only three of them are ready you can buy the three
and I’ll set them aside, when the last two are ready just pay the difference
and I’ll ship the whole lot at once to save on shipping. You’d still get the
5 qty discount and you’ll never pay more than $12 to ship them all even if
you buy 20!! But I can’t be setting aside titles for guys unless they pay
for them as you know what will happen with all the cheap ass RPGers. We’d
just forget about it or waste all our limited pinball funds going to
Allentown or buying more games!! :-) Hmmm… not a bad idea. But if you want
a title snarf it while you can.

The website is konker.tripod.com

Thanks
Bob Smith

Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Question for commercial ops.

Here’s what I have done. I replaced the collectable Williams titles
with select Gottlieb system 3 titles. This is in laundrymats and low
profile locations. The customers there just want to play pinball and
eat up time. These are not pinball purists. SF2, Shaq, Waterworld,
911, Op Thunder, Wipe Out, & Vegas. These all make money in this type
of atmosphere.

Higher profile customers, (places with some atmosphere), get Williams
beaters. Getaway, Hurricane, WH20, Dr. Who, & similar. When I say
beaters I mean “not collector quality”.

The party rental folks can get TSPP, LOTR, T3, EATPM, Freddy, IJ,
CFTBL, & similar. These are premium rentals to specfic locations like
resorts and golf clubs. These games get photographed when placed, and
removed, for security reasons. These are also placed by a contract.

Would I place a TSPP in one of my laundramats? No way in hell. In
this part of the country within a week it would have “viva pancho
villa” etched into the cabinet and glass. This along with several
references to your mother. It’s sad but true.

I tried a Phantom of the Opera once at a pizza parlor in a less than
average location and within a week they had the mask etched off the
glass. The ownership could only say “I don no nuting”.
Games are normally location specific. You learn what to put where.

Mario
Pinthetic

From: Wolffy
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: WW HOME ROMS now available to everyone

I was the beta tester, and the release point. Go here for the good and bad:

http://www.gaspar.net/05120901.htm

-wolffy

From: “Greg Dunlap”
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Pinball Coffee Table

Hello all,

For Christmas I made my girlfriend a coffee table from a pinball
machine I got off ebay. Unlike many of these projects that have been
seen in the past, this one lights up! It was inspired by similar tables
they have at a bar here called Shorty’s which has about ten games in
the back. I made a project for it on instructables.com which is
probably pretty old hat for anyone here, but it has some cool pictures.

http://www.instructables.com/ex/i/E1997D9CD7601028931A001143E7E506/

Enjoy!

Greg Dunlap

Subject: Re: Pinball Coffee Table

Very nice project! I have built one too, but decided to use a wired
transformer instead. Not as clean as a self-contained battery, but I
think mine would use too much power.

I have added your project to my write-up, which is here:
http://www.edcheung.com/album/album05/pinball/furniture.htm
in case you are interested.

Edward Cheung

From: “Jim Knight”
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: FYI: First Pics Improved Through-Hole WPC Driver Board

I know you guys are able to repair your WPC driver boards; However, giving
a heads up on our latest redesigned product which can be used to replace
WPc89 & WPC-S driver boards.

We just got the board in and here is a picture of the front and back of the
blank PCB

https://home.comcast.net/~rottendog/wdp089.htm

We are still not sure of the final cost of the completed board as the
assembly house has not pulled together the final numbers. It will, though,
be less expensive than anything else out there.

Unless unforeseen major design defects are found, these should be available
in February 2006 time frame.

Design changes include:
-Discrete diodes replacing all Bridge Rectifiers
-Low Voltage Dropout +5V regulator - needs only 0.5V supply above +5V!
-Lower inrush current into all voltage regulators
-Logic Level FET’s simplifying the coil drive circuits
-Test points for all voltage supplies
-Centrally located LED’s with attached test points
-Beefed up ground plane (almost entire bottom side)

Again, just giving the community a “heads up”.

Jim Knight
734 330 5543

PS this is a ROTTENDOG AMUSEMENTS product and is clearly marked so. It is
unmistakably a new design which in no way purports to be a Williams or Bally
product!

PSS let’s fire up the soldering iron.

From: “BWAGNER5150″
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Coin Door Paper Insert for Coin Reject Button

Hi Mike, check out Mike’s Arcade. They have graphics files with the
inserts & they’re great. I use them on vids all the time. Here’s the
URL:

http://www.mikesarcade.com/arcade/labels.html

Ben

http://www.stevechannel.com/pinballdolly.htm

and

http://webpages.charter.net/chibler/Pinball/Images/PinDolly.jpg

From: “kirb”
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Arcade Carpet

icetre wrote:
> What’s the best source for arcade carpet?
>
> Adam

I got this from my local Carpet One:
http://www.geocities.com/kirbseepe5/gameroom2-0518b.JPG

The pic sucks, but it is a dark blue with light brown and maroon
squares.

It’s not too loud, hides spills, very easy to maintain, bounces back
from leg levelers in a day, overall great carpet.

Downside? it takes a lot of light to make the room bright. One thing
you may want to think about. Keeping the room bright is only done with
lighter carpet. I should have went crazy and put the wall sconces about
3 feet off the floor pointing up, but that is in my next life…

Kirb

From: Robert Winter Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Arcade Carpet

http://www.astrocarpetmills.com/

I have the Galaxy pattern in my gameroom.

Robert

From:
Subject: Re: OT - Creative Ideas / Items Needed for my Gameroom - Please!

WOW - lots of great ideas so far!

Let’s see:

1) Popcorn Machine - Anyone know of one made that is 16″ deep or less?
I would love to have one!

2) Soda Machine - Got one (see picture 5) - dispenses 3 different
beers (Guinness, Bass & Sammy Adams) and 9 different sodas - to deep
for this area, but a MUST HAVE!

3) Wall Game - Anyone have one in the Mid-atlantic area - always
wanted one, but never seem to find it . . .

4) Vintage Gas Pump - Cool idea, very expensive (to me) since I like
interactive things; but if the price was right, I’d grab one!

5) Neon - always like neon - right now I have the Playboy Bunny Head
and always keeping an eye out for something cool (maybe a wall of
neon??? Nah).

6) Tolken or Change Machine - I stupidly have everything on Free Play
or I would have jumped all over this idea

7) Booze Barometer - a possibility

8) Cigar Store Indian - Another Great idea - will keep an eye out for
one.

9) Candy Machine Rack - already have 2 machines that total 11
different candies - a big item for the kids parties.

10) Ice Cold Beer game is to deep - Damn!

11) Classic Vids - Are there ANY 16″ deep or less??? (PS - I will
hold onto the Neo-Geo - love the games and I really do not see having
the space for a lot of single game vid cabs when I can have multiple
choices in 1 cabinet! Then, again, I’m a pin guy at heart). Also have
the big screen TV with SNES, N64 and PS2 wired in and just got a
Megatouch. Think I’m OK with vids for now.

So right now, the ideas I can use in that spot are the Popcorn Machine
(under 16″ deep), the Cigar Store Indian and a Booze Barometer (I still
want a wall game for a different spot in the room).

Keep the ideas coming . . .

Thanks,
Barry Schiffer
–
Please visit my gameroom:
http://home.comcast.net/~barry5327/

Recently I had a chance to go and see the beginnings of the Pinball Hall of Fame and meet Tim Arnolds in Las Vegas.

Tim was Kind enough to let me take photos.

Originally I was going to put individual photos here, but I’d just be printing a lot of photos. So if you’d like to see photos got to the pinball museum gallery site.

Video Here